He snarled at me, his teeth snapping, but the touch was all I’d needed.
I could feel his energy.
It was different than the pack’s, different than my mates’.
This was familial.
Blood.
It was black in my being, and the second I closed my eyes, I didn’t have to touch it to know who it was.
And because I knew the energy was affected by sounds, I called on my she-wolf, and she responded.
As did the bitch at my side, who went straight for Cyrilo’s throat as I let out a snarl that any natural wolf would be proud of and let it echo in his head as the creature who was tied to me in ways we’d never understand, who was Mother blessed, took the threat away.
As he bled out on the floor, I kept my eyes closed, watching as the black ball of energy withered away and died.
Only when it was snuffed out did I open them, and I saw the carnage.
I didn’t have it in me to care though.
Instead, I watched as the she-wolf pranced back to me as light on her feet as a ballet dancer now that she’d attacked, and with her bloody maw still dripping my brother’s lifeblood, she returned to my side and waited for me to pat her head.
That was her payment.
My mouth curved into a smile, then I heard Frank say, “Well, I figured I’d seen a lot in all these years, but I never thought I’d see that. Are they tied together or something?”
“Or something,” Eli rasped.
And that was the way of it.
Whatever was going on here, whatever was happening with me and the she-wolf, how linked we were…I wasn’t about to question it.
The Mother had known I’d need help, and here she was.
At my side.
And I knew that her pups would be at my babies’ sides too.
Austin
Nothing was starting to surprise me.
I was getting used to batshit, because ever since Sabina had come into this world, she’d shaken things up from the start.
So, watching the she-wolf bitch scratch at the door like a dog needing to be let out didn’t come as a surprise. Nor did the way she didn’t go outside, just howled on the doorjamb, and within seconds, the pack of natural wolves was running to her side.
Two males approached her, bowing their heads as they did so, and when she sniffed then retreated to Cyrilo’s corpse, I wasn’t surprised when they began to drag him out.
The bloody mess they left behind, the trail of guts, was something I was grateful our maids would have to deal with.
It was, even for me, pretty fucking gross, and when they were outside with the body, when they took him far out into the forest until we couldn’t see them, I knew the naturals were about to have a human feast.
Quite fitting, I thought, for scum like that.
Sabina turned to Frank and said, “I’m sure you understand, but I need a moment,” and without waiting for his reply, retreated to the door. I felt Eli’s need to go to her, Ethan’s too, but we had etiquette, and leaving another alpha in our council room wasn’t how we went about doing things.
Me, on the other hand, I wasn’t tied to the formalities as much, so I slipped out after her, just in time to watch her retreat to the kitchen.
Brows high, I followed her and saw the kitchen was empty except for a small boy.
My nose twitched at the scent of him, one I somehow recognized, then I saw she was looming over him, asking, “Daniel, did you eat something?”
He bit his lip, shoulders rounded so his head was hanging low, and he muttered, “Yes, ma’am.”
Daniel.
I knew that name. Not rare, but I knew of no pup in the pack with that name, and it was my job to know everyone.
My brow furrowed as I tried to process who he was, whom he belonged to, and then I stopped worrying.
Sabina was my priority.
I moved over to her, getting as close as I could until I was at her back, and she sighed the second I was there and leaned into me.
“You need to go lie down,” I rumbled in her ear.
She sniffed. “I’m not sick.”
“That was some impressive—”
“It wasn’t me. It was the she-wolf,” she retorted primly.
“If you think that, you’re nuts. She’s tied to you and your she-wolf in a way I’ve never seen before. Frank is a lot older than any of us. He was shocked too. That tells you it’s rare what you just did.”
“Just as rare as what Cyrilo was able to do.”
I hummed, because she was right.
“Do you have any sisters?”
Her eyes widened at that.
Her jealousy should have pissed me off, especially when I was tied to her, one hundred percent, but instead, and knowing that was the human half of her still at play, I started to answer, “Sabina—”
“No! Sorry.” She reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. “That was stupid of me. Why were you asking—so you could take one for a mate? As if.” She blew out a breath. “Stupid. So stupid.”
I reached for her, grabbed her shoulder, and squeezed. “Don’t be hard on yourself.”
The fact that she was being exactly that told me she was in more shock than she was letting on.
It figured.
What had just happened back there was enough to blow my mind, never mind hers, and I was used to this world.
I watched her take a seat opposite Daniel, who hadn’t uttered a peep since my arrival, and as she shakily seated herself, I murmured, “I’ll get you some water.”
When she didn’t argue, I headed over to the industrial sink, grabbed a glass from the cupboard above it, then used the filtered water faucet to pour her some.
As I did, she answered, “I have two sisters.”
“Cyrilo was the only boy?”
“Yes.” She gulped. “Thank God.”
“Why?”
“Because he was horrible. And having two of him around would have been a nightmare.”
I gnawed on my bottom lip at the thought, because it made me wish I could tear Cyrilo to shreds as well.
Those natural wolves from the other side were fucking lucky to be snacking on him.
When I turned around, I made sure my expression was composed though, and handed her the water.
“Daniel, who are your folks?” she asked, and I let her change the subject off herself, especially since we shouldn’t be discussing things like this in front of the boy. “We need to get you back to them.”
“I don’t have any parents anymore,” Daniel whispered, making me frown.
I tipped my chin to the side. “Who were they?” I didn’t know of any deaths in the recent past.
“Lina and Kingsley Rainford.”
My mouth rounded at that as I processed those words, then I heard her mutter in my head, “You know them? Who is he? He was caught shoplifting at the store.”
“You’re on the wrong land, Daniel. You know that, don’t you?” I told the boy instead, but I was soft as I spoke to him, not wanting to scare him.
But it figured that was why he was scared in the first place.
He knew he shouldn’t really be here.
“I don’t like it on Rainford land anymore,” he whispered, his bottom lip quivering.
It wasn’t hard to figure out why.
I rubbed my brow, wondering how the fuck I was going to explain to Eli that, somehow, our mate had brought home the kid of a recently felled alpha from our neighboring pack.
Sweet fuck.
This was the last thing we needed.
But what were we supposed to do?
Turn him out?
I’d never agree with that shit. Ever.
“What’s going on?” Sabina questioned, her voice wary, and I sensed she could discern my own concern over the situation.
“Daniel’s father was the Alpha of the Rainford pack, which is about three hundred miles east.” I blew out a breath. “When his mother’s mate died, she passed, and in t
hose circumstances, packs tend to—”
“Throw children out?” she whispered, finishing the sentence before I could.
I cut her a look, and knew she was assimilating a lot of information right now.
Eli had told her that only bad alphas were challenged, and Kingsley had been the worst.
He’d been cruel and vindictive. Power had bloated him.
It was no wonder that the Rainford pack hadn’t wanted his spawn there.
Except, the kid was little.
And he was scared.
I could sense that from here.
He was hungry too, bony, and if he’d been living in an actual house for a while, I’d be surprised, because it looked to me like he’d been sleeping rough, maybe in the forest.
“I know you were fostered, Daniel,” I rumbled softly, squatting down in front of him. “Why aren’t you with that family?”
“They’re mean to me,” he whispered miserably. “Everyone’s mean to me now.”
I tipped my chin, understanding how fear could lead to cruelty, even if I hated the truth of that.
Rubbing my chin, I murmured, “We won’t be mean to you. Do you want a sandwich?”
“The lady already made me one.”
I hummed. “But you’re a growing boy, ain’t you? You need more than one sandwich.”
He peeped at me from under his lashes, his bright blue eyes staring back at me. “I’m still hungry,” he whispered.
That was clear to see.
A kid his age shouldn’t be so small, especially not when he was alpha stock, and he was.
That was another nail in his coffin.
Though it was young, I could see it in him.
He was going to change soon.
It was in the air around him.
My wolf sensed it.
As I got to my feet, moving toward the refrigerator for some fixin’s, I asked, “How old are you, Daniel?”
He gulped. “Nine.”
A year older than Eli had been when he’d shifted.
It fit.
I blew out a breath, then I felt her settle behind me, her hands coming to bridge over my belly.
“What is it?”
“He’s powerful.”
“I can feel that, I think.” She hummed, her mind wandering off as she tried to figure out what was happening, things that I wasn’t explaining.
That was the trouble with our life.
Some things just couldn’t be explained. Some things just had to be bred into you. Cultural shit was hard to pass on, but this? Impossible.
How did you explain that some packs felt no compunction in tossing little kids out into the human world to survive on their own if they’d lost their family to a pack challenge?
It was evil, I knew, wrong on so many levels, but what an alpha could do to a pack when they were cruel enough to be challenged?
Not worth thinking about.
I thought about all that as I made a PB&J for the kid, then I muttered, “You need to ask Eli if he can stay.”
She tensed a little. “Why?”
“Because if you ask, he won’t be able to say no.”
“And he’d say no if you did?”
“Yes. He would. Without compunction. We don’t meddle in other pack’s politics, and Daniel is one big Gordian knot of trouble. Especially as he’s going to shift soon.”
She pressed her forehead to the center of my back. “I didn’t mean to pick up trouble, but he was being scolded, and I couldn’t stand it—”
She knew what it was to be alone.
To be left adrift.
I sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Just make sure you explain what you know to Eli and plead with him if you must. Otherwise, he’ll be returned to the foster system, and he’s far too strong for that.”
I could sense her confusion. “You really think I’ll be able to convince him?”
“Of course.” I snorted. “He’d lay down his life for you, Sabina. Just like Ethan and I would.”
She sighed. “You don’t need to. I’d prefer you to live.”
“Yes, well, that’s the goal,” I said, amused by her answer. She hadn’t taken it as a compliment, more of an irritated perk of being mated to men as powerful as the three of us.
That was probably going to be very good for our egos. Sabina wasn’t the only one in our unit who was going to be grounded, it would seem.
We were going to be leveled out too.
I’d already seen how Cyrilo’s unfeeling responses to Sabina’s distress had ruptured my icy brother’s control.
We were changing.
I just wondered how I was too.
Was I getting softer?
Something about the boy’s plight just didn’t sit well with me. I don’t know if that something was triggered by being newly mated, or if it was just a broader understanding of how fate worked.
Sometimes, things happened for a reason.
Sometimes, bad shit had to happen for the good to be allowed to flourish.
If Kingsley had lived, for example, that meant Daniel would have been a lost cause.
As Sabina’s father had bred Cyrilo for sin, Kingsley would have done the same.
But under our roof?
He’d be an alpha to look up to.
I reached for the hand she’d pressed to my belly, and squeezed her fingers before murmuring, “Just speak with Eli. Okay?”
She hummed, and the sound soothed me in a way I wasn’t about to question before I grabbed the sandwich, traipsing across the kitchen to hand it to Daniel, who hadn’t moved once.
At least if we had to live with a kid, he was a good kid.
Probably too fucking terrified to squeak without shitting himself, thanks to that cocksucker of a father of his.
When I heard movement in the hall, I listened in, taking note that Frank was leaving.
Ethan and I didn’t even need to talk to one another, didn’t even need to discuss Frank and who he was to us.
We wouldn’t be exploring that side of our family.
Roots were roots, but we were who we were, and we made ourselves into the men we clawed our way into being.
Just like Daniel.
His past tarnished him, but his future would make him.
Ethan’s and my pasts didn’t tarnish us, but we weren’t going to be digging into the family history, making connections, not unless the pack needed them.
You never knew when you needed another pack on your side, but Frank’s was from the South, and we were high up in the North. I highly doubted we would be able to use those ties between us to any gain.
Ethan’s voice was polite, Eli’s sharp at the same time, both were grateful as they ushered Frank out of the house.
When I heard a car start in the distance, only then did my shoulders settle as tension released from them.
“You don’t have to have a relationship with him if you don’t want to,” Sabina told me gently, reading my mind but answering out loud.
“I know. I don’t want one.”
“I figured as much.”
“I want to focus on the future, not the past.”
“That’s what we’ll do.” She pressed a hand to her stomach, reached for mine, and smiled. “That’s what we’ll do.”
I arched a brow at her, and teased, though I knew she had her period, “You trying to tell me something?”
She grinned, shook her head. “Nope. Just, you know, preempting things.”
I rolled my eyes. “You never heard of the phrase ‘you don’t borrow trouble’?”
She arched a brow at me, darted a look at Daniel, and repeated, “Nope.”
I laughed a little, then hauled her into me so I could kiss her on the brow.
Eli
“You want to what?”
I worked my jaw at that, not appreciating being questioned by someone I didn’t even fucking consider a councilor anymore.
Before, taking their shit had been hard.
Now that I had a d
ifferent plot ahead in mind, it was even more difficult to accept.
I ran a hand over my chin, watching as the council—without Conrad and his wife as leaders—gathered in front of me, umbrage lining their features as they bristled with dissension and fury at my tactics.
“It isn’t a matter of wanting. It is a matter of honor. Of duty. For a child that young to be tossed out onto the streets is an abomination.”
“That’s because Kingsley Rainford was an abomination,” Laura Thierry muttered.
“Yes, but his son isn’t. He’s also close to shifting, and if he does that and is left to lead his own life without any input from anyone else? Who knows where that might lead us.”
“It isn’t our problem,” Ronan Grayford snapped, making me want to bitch slap the fucker for being so damn dense.
“It is. He came to our territory. He was stealing food from one of our stores to fill his belly. At some point, it was going to become our problem.” I shook my head. “This is why I have issues with you all. You never see the woods for the trees. You never see past the small circle in which you inhabit—”
“We all know your thoughts on our leadership,” Grayford snapped. “Poor Conrad and Larissa—”
“Poor Conrad, my ass,” Ethan snarled, his anger clear to behold. “I saw what happened with my own eyes. He cornered an innocent. A woman a lot older than him. He was duplicitous and disrespectful of pack law. We don’t challenge each other like wild, feral beasts in the middle of a run. We uphold pack law, and as council leader, that was literally all he had to do, and he failed.”
Ethan wasn’t wrong, but then, he’d been there.
I had taken no pleasure in ending Conrad’s miserable life, mostly because I pitied his wife. As mates, when he wandered over to the next realm and into the Mother’s arms, she would too.
I never killed without being fully aware of the repercussions, but Conrad?
He was a fool.
He’d refused to relent, he’d carried on attacking me, so when he snapped at me, my beast had overtaken my control and had demanded submission.
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